Press Releases

Mar182011

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, made the following statement today after the release of the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the president’s budget, which revealed that the official White House proposal concealed an additional $2.3 trillion in deficits and, within a decade, would quadruple our nation’s publicly held debt from what it was at the beginning of the 2008 fiscal year.

On the heels of these revelations and the continuing budget spin from the White House, Sessions urged the president to lead the country in an honest conversation about the budget:

“Today we received a new estimate of the president’s budget from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. What we have learned is that White House budget estimates employed a number of gimmicks to conceal the true extent of its staggering cost.

Under CBO’s projections, over the next ten years, deficits will be 31 percent higher than the White House claimed, $9.5 trillion vs. $7.2 trillion. Annual debt interest payments rise to $931 billion—exceeding White House projections by nearly $100 billion a year. By the end of the decade, if the president’s policies are adopted, debt held by the public will quadruple from what it was just three years ago. CBO analysis shows that even the president’s weak argument that his budget achieves so-called ‘primary balance’ quickly disappears once the White House’s budget gimmicks are removed.

In short, the CBO analysis proves that the president’s budget accelerates our dangerous and unsustainable trajectory. It is the most irresponsible spending plan a president has put forward in our time.

We need honest, fact-based budgeting—not fantasy budgeting. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs says that our debt is the greatest threat to our nation’s security. How can we effectively confront that threat when the president still won’t acknowledge it?

In times of great challenge, a president must lead. Yet President Obama has never once looked the American people in the eye and explained the depth of our fiscal problems or what we will have to do to solve them. Instead, he presents a budget with $9.5 trillion in deficit spending and tells the American people that, under his plan, we will be able to pay down the national debt and live within our means.

We must get off the road of runaway spending and borrowing and get on the road to a leaner, more productive government that allows the private sector to grow and thrive. And we must reform a tax code, and an energy policy, that blocks productivity. These steps will restore confidence, create jobs, and spur economic growth. The choice is this: fail to act and leave our country on the road to decline, or take needed action today to guarantee a prosperous tomorrow.”